Tax Foundation

Ted Marvel pays $4,900 in annual property taxes on his 1,000-square-foot home in the heart of Collingswood. In fact, his monthly tax bill - $407 - is starting to rival what he pays in principal and interest on his mortgage. Said Marvel: "They're going to meet soon. " In the new millennium, New Jersey's property taxes, the highest in the nation, are exploring new heights. "It's astronomical," said Marvel. "It's crazy. " That, too, his Garden State neighbors affirm. Even as incomes have dropped (4.4 percent)

Let me tell you how it will be. Taxman! There's one for you, 19 for me. Should 5 percent appear too small. Be thankful I don't take it all. - George Harrison, 1966 It didn't take long for Morton and Aston Brookhaven, hypothetical taxpayers of Delaware County, to feel the bite of the largest tax increase in commonwealth history. With a combined income of $53,265 a year, the Brookhavens - two full-time wage earners and two young children - pay roughly $15 a week more today in state income taxes than they did when the tax rate jumped from 2.1 to 3.1 percent on Aug. 14. Sixty dollars a month, $780 a year.

New Jersey's rising taxes drive away business New Jersey's annual tax-increase season is in full swing. Gov. Corzine has proposed a $1.4 million tax expansion, mainly by increasing the sales tax to 7 percent and levying a 2.5 percent corporation business tax surcharge. Also, there may be $2.5 billion in cuts or restrained growth in school support. This would mean more increases in property taxes collected by counties, municipalities and public schools. For 2005, the Tax Foundation ranked New Jersey's business climate 49th in the nation, or one place above the state with the worst business climate - New York.

TRENTON - Two Bergen County Democrats went on location to Fort Lee - the one-time capital of the motion picture industry - to launch their latest appeal for renewal of a tax credit for production companies that make movies or television shows in New Jersey. Sens. Loretta Weinberg and Paul Sarlo say the Film and Digital Media Tax Credit Program creates jobs and drives the economy. The Christie administration maintains that tax credits have produced disappointing economic results. Gov. Christie suspended the credit after taking office, saving $10 million.

The Republican caucuses in Congress have been blocking superstorm Sandy aid for New York and New Jersey because not all the money would go toward emergency expenditures needed to provide immediate relief. It's true that the legislation also includes aid for other projects, including Alaskan fisheries and a NASA site in Florida. Congress has traditionally included unrelated items in disaster-aid bills. But if these items need to be removed to help communities ravaged by Sandy, then remove them.

It's about 11 in the morning. That's time for me to get cracking, but all I feel like is grabbing another cup of rocket fuel, checking the late box scores, doing the Word Scramble maybe. You see, I'm still on the government's time, and that just fouls my motivation right up. I won't snap out of it until 11:52 a.m., when I stop working for Big Gummint and start working for myself. As any God-fearing American not stuck in the swamp of liberal idiocy knows, about 35 cents of every dollar you earn goes to Big Gummint.

TRENTON - A proposed tax change intended to spur multistate corporations to invest more in New Jersey failed to win approval a decade ago when Republicans controlled state government, and the same proposal had languished in the Legislature since Democrats came into power. But Thursday, the Assembly and Senate embraced with no opposition a change in the state's corporate tax formula championed by Gov. Christie on the campaign trail. The Legislature's devoting so much attention to business incentives marks "a sea change in the attitude in Trenton," said James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

In a series of what Assembly leaders said were "unprecedented" hearings on the state's economy, lawmakers moved yesterday to trim taxes for New Jersey businesses, expand grants to help keep or create jobs, and help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Meanwhile, Gov. Corzine plans to address the economic meltdown by calling a special legislative session next week to outline ways to handle the crisis, said spokesman Sean Darcy. "Gov. Corzine will deal with the national financial crisis, its potential impact on New Jersey, and steps the administration intends to take moving forward," Darcy wrote in an e-mail.

Tax protesters who held "tea parties" in Philadelphia and other cities are both right and wrong. They're right that the national debt is out of control. But they're wrong about taxpayers now bearing an especially heavy burden. The demonstrations ignited partisan disagreements about motives, but they also raised a point that's beyond dispute: The federal government must get serious about balancing its books, soon. Despite bailouts and massive government spending to combat the recession, overall tax burdens today are not as high as in previous years.

"Privatizing Social Security is too risky," warn critics of reforming the retirement program. "You just can't trust the stock market. " But that seriously misstates both the risks of privatization and those of remaining with the current Social Security system. With the release this month of a report by the Social Security Advisory Council, the debate over Social Security's future has been joined. Many, recognizing the current system's precarious state, want to privatize Social Security, allowing younger workers to divert all or part of their payroll taxes to individually owned, privately invested accounts similar to individual retirement accounts or 401(k)